Butterscotch ‘angel delight’ recipe

When I first came to make this, I didn’t have any brown sugar to hand so used white instead; you can taste the difference between them, and it’s worth trying the dish both ways to test it yourself. It can be challenging to heat the sugar so intensely as it starts to smoke, but the careful addition of the cream at this temperature stops the sugar cooking.

Prep time: 15 minutes, plus chilling | Cooking time: 20 minutes

SERVES

Four

INGREDIENTS

For the ‘custard’

• 25g cornflour

• 400ml full-fat milk

• 2 egg yolks

For the butterscotch

• 30g butter

• 100g caster sugar

• 200ml double cream

For the topping

• 150ml double cream, whipped to soft peaks

METHOD

1. Put the cornflour and milk into a tall cup and blitz with a hand blender until smooth, making sure there are no lumps. Add the egg yolks and blitz again until smooth.

2. In a large saucepan (this is for safety reasons as will become apparent later), heat the butter and sugar together, stirring to help the sugar dissolve, over a medium heat until the mixture starts to go brown.

3. Meanwhile, bring the double cream to the boil in another saucepan, then immediately remove it from the heat.

4. Let the butter and sugar turn to caramel. If you have a digital thermometer, use this to measure the temperature until it reads 170C – the caramel will start to turn dark brown and smoke. At this point, take the pan off the heat and pour the double cream into the caramel. Be careful – it will splutter and rise (hence the need for the big saucepan). Keep stirring to remove any lumps.

5. Add the caramel mixture to the “custard” and return to the heat, stirring continuously to remove any lumps. The mix will thicken because of the cornflour and egg yolks. Once thick (I take the mixture off the heat when the thermometer reads 75C) strain the mixture through a sieve into a jug and blitz with a hand blender.

6. Transfer to four glasses and allow to cool for about 30 minutes before chilling in the fridge for six hours or overnight. I loosely cover the glasses (roughly pushing a paper napkin into the top of each glass) to prevent a skin forming and also to allow the warm air to escape.

7. When the glasses have chilled, spoon some whipped double cream on to each one and serve.